1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiant floor heating system having channels for receiving tubing wherein a layer having rapid planar heat dissipation and reduced pass-through heat dissipation is provided.
2. Description of the Related Art
One common home heating method includes the use of forced-air furnaces. While these systems work well for their intended purposes, their use is not without some limitations. Forced-air systems work by distributing heated air into desired rooms. The heat has a tendency to quickly rise towards the ceiling, which is inefficient. Rooms, particularly those with tile or slate flooring, may feel cold. Rooms with hard wood flooring may also feel cold. Homeowners and occupants may have reduced enjoyment of rooms with these types of flooring during the winter months when their home is heated with a forced air system.
In contrast, many homes can be constructed with radiant in-floor heating. Benefits of the in-floor heating in the winter months are well known, and include the comfortable use and enjoyment of rooms with natural flooring or other types of solid flooring. This is traditionally accomplished by locating tubing in the floor when pouring the concrete sub-floor. One drawback of this type of installation is that any punctures or leaks in the tubing can be difficult and costly to fix. Also, this type of installation is only practical for a new construction. It is not practical to install this type of system when remodeling a home. Several inches of concrete may be necessary, and the room may not be able to accommodate the required thickness of the concrete. Also, use of several inches of concrete is impractical for use in all levels but the bottom level of a home due to the weight of the concrete. A further drawback of recessing the tubing in concrete is the built-in inefficiency of allowing some heat pass to the ground below the concrete. This is due to the lack of insulation below the concrete.
A product having the name Warmboard exists utilizing panel type sub-flooring. Caulk or another type of adhesive is necessary to hold the tubes in place. It can be difficult to remove adhesively secured tubes if they are in need of repair or replacement. Further, the caulk and adhesive can interfere with the transfer of heat from the fluid within the tube to the floor.
Another system in use utilizes a tube mounted to the underside of a sub-floor between the joists. Insulation is then placed below the tube and between the joists so that the heat dissipated from the tube rises through the sub-floor instead of into the room below. It is impractical to install this type of system during a remodeling job when the room below the room where the heating system is being installed is a finished room. This is because the finished ceiling will impair access to the joists.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,366 to Werner is entitled Support Plate for Guiding Heating Pipes of a Floor or Wall Heating System. Looking particularly to FIG. 3 of the Werner patent, it is seen that this patent discloses a heat conducting layer, and a recess that forms part of a circle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,814 to Fennesz discloses a system for tempering a room. This system has duct for allowing air to pass through the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,152 to Alsberg shows a floor heating system. The system has panels overlaid with a heat conducting surface embossed with a matching groove pattern. The panels have structural characteristics of a subflooring panel. FIG. 3 shows a modular panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,378 to Fiedrich is entitled Radiant Floor and Wall Hydronic Heating Systems. This patent shows a plate for holding a tube in intimate thermal contact so that the plate is heated by conduction. The plate has a radiating surface that radiates the heat to an area. U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,523 also to Fiedrich is entitled For Radiant Floor, Wall and Ceiling Hydronic Heating and/or Cooling Systems Using Metal Plates that are Heated or Cooled by Attached Tubing that is Fed Hot or Cold Water, Techniques of Improving Performance and Avoiding Condensation when Cooling. A thermal barrier is provided between the panels and the finished floor to prevent “hot spots”. U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,980 further to Fiedrich in entitled Dry Installation of a Radiant Floor or Wall Hydronic Heating System, Metal Radiating Plates that Attach to the Edges of Side-By-Side Boards and Provide Metal Slots for Holding Hot Water Tubing. The metal plate is shown to be in two separate pieces that are attached to edges of spaced apart boards. The metal plates combine to hold the tubing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,382 to Fitzemeyer shows a radiant heating system pipe mounting plate. The plate is disclosed to be a flat sheet with a groove in the upper surface. A pipe is retained in the groove by a ridge running the length of the groove so that the pipe can be snapped into the groove. A top is also shown for making a flat surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,185 and pending application with publication number 2003/0218075 to Muir shows a thermal heating board comprising a nonstructural board with a recess. A pipe can be located within the recess. A film or metal can also be provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,298 to Corbett, entitled Modular Cementitous Thermal Panels for Radiant Heating, shows panels made of Portland cement or other curable cement.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,021,372 to Pickard shows a heat tubing receptacle for tightly gripping the heat tubing. Sheet metal heat transfer plates may be attached to the tubing receptacle.
Pending application with publication number 2004/0040693 to Fiedrich shows forming a metal sheet in a unitary fashion by folding it longitudinally to provide protuberances of double thickness for holding tubing. Pending application with publication number 2006/0144578 also to Fiedrich shows modular panels having special purpose bus tracks for routing tubing.
One drawback generally of using tubes to conduct a heated medium such as fluid below a finished floor is that the flooring can have hot spots directly above the tubing, termed hot stripping, and cooler spots between two runs of tube.
To overcome this deficiency, some of the inventions in the above patents utilize sheets, plates or foils of metal such as aluminum to conduct the heat over a wider area. Yet, the metal, being conductive in all directions, is still susceptible to heat stripping. Heat stripping occurs as the heat rises to the floor faster than it is conducted to the outer reaches of area between tubes. Hence, the heat may be full transferred to the floor in a limited area.
None of the above-patents show structures or methods to rapidly deploy heat over a larger area.
GrafTech Internatinal produces a product called Grafihx Flexible Heat Transfer Plates which appear to be sheets of graphite which is available in rolls and sheets.
United States Published Application 2006/0272796 to Asmussen et al. is titled Flexible Graphite Flooring Heat Spreader. It shows a heat spreader having a layer of flexible graphite material.
United States Published Application 2009/0101306 to Reis et al. is titled Heat Exchanger System. It shows a heat exchanger system, especially for a room, including a thermal element comprising a surface; a heat spreader comprising at least one sheet of compressed particles of exfoliated graphite having a density of at least about 0.6 g/cc and a thickness of less than about 10 mm, and further comprising a first side and a second side, wherein the heat spreader is positioned relative to the thermal element such that the heat spreader is at least partially wrapped around the thermal element so that the first side of the heat spreader is in a thermal transfer relationship with a portion of the thermal element surface.
While each of these last three references may work well for their intended purposes, the each nevertheless can be improved upon.
For example, none of these references show a thermal transfer element having a protective layer on top of the graphite layer. In this regard, the graphite layer in these references may be subject to damage during the installation process.
Further, none of these references show the use of a metallic layer on top of the graphite layer to draw the heat or cold from the graphite layer and transfer it to the floor above the thermal transfer layer.
Still further, none of these references show the use of an insulative layer directly below the graphite layer to mitigate thermal loss below the graphite layer.
Thus there exists a need for a radiant floor heating system and methods of use that solves these and other problems.